On May 17, 12:29*pm, wrote:
On Wed, 16 May 2012 17:23:21 -0400, micky
wrote:





On Wed, 16 May 2012 07:42:10 -0400, Jim Elbrecht
wrote:

"HeyBub" wrote:

-snip-

I know maths is hard, but let's see if we can figure this out:

Let's assume a manual meter-read can read, oh, one meter every three
minutes.

Maybe in an apartment building basement he can do that.

Not in my neck of the woods he can't-- *and I'm just in the burbs. In
rural areas he might drive 5 minutes between meters.

I live in a townhouse, and even here I think 3 minutes is unlikely,
even wiithout goofing off. *At my house he'd have to move things out
of his way, garbage cans, etc, then squeeze past the motorcycle (1 or
2 minutes) *then remove the old one (1 minute) and put in the new one
(1 minute) , then go back to the truck to get another meter (2
minutes, 3 if has to unlock/lock the truck) then go to the next house
1 minute. *And he will probably relax for 30 seconds between meters.

So I think we're talking 6 to 9 minutes/meter. * Not much more for
single family houses in small to modertate sized lots, except he has
longer to walk to the truck and has to move it more often.

If you obstruct a meter here you get a nasty note on your door,
threatening to disconnect the power. Meter readers are usually college
kids and I think they get paid by the route so they move right along.
The meter swappers were contractors too so they were not screwing
around either.

It is probably different in a mobbed up northern union state but the
meter reader union probably stops the remote readers anyway.

think of the cost per year to read meters. employee, vehicle expense,
workmens comp, social security, retirement etc etc...

the smart meters must save money over their lifetime, and the ability
to disconnect no pay customers saves bucks too